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THE 



OWNER'S HOUSE BOOK 



Devoted to the subject of Artistic 

Decoration and Color 

Harmony in House 

Painting. 



COMPILED BY LEADING ARCHITECTS, HOUSE-DECORATORS, 
MASTER-PAINTERS AND COLOR-EXPERTS. 



Published by 

POOLE PAINT ASSOCIATION, 

ST. LOUIS, MO. 



^ 






UBWABY o« CONGRESS 
Two Conies Received 

AUG 23 1906 

CopyriKiit Cniry 
CLASiff <^ XXc. No. 

7 S3 S 20. 

COPY B. 



1/ 



COPYRIGHT, 1906, 

BY 

A. W. POOLE 




A WORD ABOUT THIS BOOK 

IHIS book is a book for the 
folks at home. 

In it there is a story good to 
read, a story that will make 
the home a home of good 

taste as well as the home of good humor 

and good character. 

We believe the book is needed; it is devoted 
to the subject of artistic home decoration, 
and our best evidence of its popularity is the 
thousands of inquiries we are receiving from 
the people who ask for it. 

Every single day that dawns adds one more 
credit to the sum of American good taste; 
sees some new beauty wrought to make the 
home ideal. 

Home decoration and home improvement 
have long since ceased to be fads and fan- 
cies. They are real; intense; vivid realities. 

Even our common schools and high schools 
all are teaching and striving in their various 
ways to this great end. Nor have the 
people proven slow to learn the pleasant 
lesson taught — the story of beauty, the theme 
of art, harmony of color, delightful appear- 
ance of the house itself, the inspiration of it 



and the help it is in every way to all who 
feel its influence. 

The results of this great movement are attested 
and reflected in every town and village, and, 
you might say, upon nearly every roadside 
in the land. 

Time was when the shack and the cabin in 
moss or whitewash wera as good as the best. 
All that is changed or changing. 
Advancing standards have displaced these crude 
and primitive expressions, and marked them 
out of date. More pretentious dwellings now 
take rank as the a'verage of the American 
home, and these in their turn must look still 
up and up to better things, refinement, culture, 
harmony, and the principles which underlie. 
This country is a home-country; a home- 
loving country. 

Nowhere on the face of the earth lies there a 
land like it. 

And certainly none having more varied charm 
of situation or higher beauty of natural setting 
and environment. 

Travelers and writers from the old world who 
come to study, some of them avowedly to criti- 
cize, end by falling in love with it at last, 
admiration of its spirit, its enterprise, and the 
constant advance of the people along progres- 
sive lines. 



Yes, the ''backwoods'^ are still here; so are the 
mossbacks, the pullbacks and the unwilling* 
But go into any live town or village of to-day 
and compare it with the same site a few short 
years ago. 

The world is getting better and the American 
houseowner and homebuilder is literally in the 
van of the procession. 

He knows that when the Ftsench lord said that 
**home was merely a place to go'' he most 
certainly failed utterly to appreciate the key- 
note of the life of the people of the United 
States. 

Home^ with us^ means more than "a, place to 
go to." 

Home, to us, is the place not to go away from; 
the heart center of our lives; the bright ob- 
jective of all our aims, ambitions, efforts; a 
place of peace. 

And more than that — a place of pride, 
**1 know him by the house he lives in." 
And the house has its rights, too. 

You can shame a house by neglect and ex- 
pose it to the sneers of passersby until, as 
Howell says, '*It seems to wince when you 
glance at it." 

A house, a home, is as much entitled to its 
proper dress as those who live inside of it. 



And it should dress to its part according to its 
character^ station and neighborhood; we might 
also say according to the occasion, though 
residence "occasions^' may mean a many a 
year. 

To do this well — at least to help in the art of 
making the home all that it can be in appear- 
ance, and that, too, in good taste, quiet 
elegance and harmony — is the purpose of this 
book; the only book of its kind ever ventured, 
so far as we know* 

And we may be permitted to say another word, 
that those who have written for it have been 
very carefully chosen for their respective tasks, 
in order, first of all, to make sure that it be 
plain and practical. 

It must be to be helpful. 

So that nearly every point in the volume will 
be found at least clearly stated, and the many 
hints and directions contained — good and trust- 
worthy — and ready for the working to make 
home beautiful and true in the highest and 
best sense. 




ART IN HOME DECORATION 

HE best of architects may 
draw the designs; capable 
contractors and builders 
carry them out^ but unless 
the house is decorated ar- 
tisticaliyt with due regard to the proper 
blending of shades into a harmonious 
color scheme, specially adapted to the 
purpose, the structure lacks the finishing 
touch which sets the seal of approval 
upon the home and makes it a house 
worth having. 

It is because of a proper consideration 
of surroundings, and a realization of the 
effect of light and shade, that the modern 
home builder turns away from the dear 
old house done all in white with staring 
green blinds, or the later inharmonic 
Queen Anne style, towards a design 
which will not only bring out the best 
points and hide the poor ones of the 
surroundings, but will also secure an 
artistic whole. 

Having decided upon one or more really 
exquisite shades, the next thing is to 
select the several possible combinations. 



So many make the very serious mistake 
of never giving this a thought. Taking 
the shades which meet their personal 
likes, they give no study to the location 
or site of the house, and results are to be 
seen oftentimes, not only along country 
roads but in city streets, which are far 
from pleasing. 

C^* 6^* C^* 

Color Back from the grassy road, surrounded 
Plan by large grounds, tree-filled, is an ideal 
I country house, painted Continental Buff, 

with trimmings of Satin White. During 
the hot summer days the yellow and 
white effect among the green trees is 
delightfully cool and fresh; while, when 
winter^s blasts pile up the snowdrifts, 
the yellow sheds a gleam of sunshine 
upon the fields of white, and then it is 
that the Elm Green roof and White 
window sashes show up best. 

a^*' 6^* ft^* 

Color One of the most artistic houses to be 

Plan seen in a flourishing town of the Middle 

n West is one crowning a sloping elevation 

of green, velvety lawn, guiltless of trees. 



which fronts the street. This beautiful 
home is painted Pearl Grey, with Sage 
Green trimmings, and sashes and lattice 
work on the piazza of Coach Green. 
The Pearl Grey, light and airy, keeps 
the house from looming up too darkly 
against the sky, while the Sage Green 
lends solidity to its general effect. 

fi^* ^3^ ft^^ 

A city home requires a different treat- Color 
ment, particularly when the paint is Plan 
liable to discoloration from smoke and m 
soot. Then Tile Tan with trimmings 
of Spaniel Brown, and sashes of Crow 
Black will produce an effect scarcely to 
be excelled for richness; and, strange to 
say, is one generally overlooked. If the 
house is in close proximity to houses or 
blocks of stone or brick, this combination 
of colors will show up all the more bril- 
liantly for the contrast. 

^5* ^^ fff^ 

Cruiser Grey (so named because it is the Color 

shade of our fighting ships during war plan 

times), combined with Satin White for jy 
trimmings, is a combination not to be 



surpassed as an unobtrusive one^ calm- 
ing in its effect upon the eyes, and grati- 
fying to an artistic appreciation. If a 
stable adjoins a house so treated, it, too, 
should be painted in like manner. Trees 
as a background of such a combination 
of shades add to the beauty of the 
grounds and house. 

^*' c^^ t^^ 

Color For simple elegance and richness, and for 
Plan striking effect as well, perhaps no better 

V can be suggested than the combina- 

tion of Roman Red and Cavern Green. 
These two colors withstand smoke and 
dirt of the city as do few others* and 
because of this alone are suitable for 
house, stable, garage or the many build- 
ings of the city; while in a setting of 
green trees, show up brilliantly on country 
home or wayside cottage. Such a com- 
bination is one of which few tire, and 
gives the buildings upon which it is used 
impressiveness, whether in crowded or 
open spaces. 

^*' ft^^ 6^^ 

uoior Two of the most harmonious colors 

fji possible to combine to effect perfect artis- 

*■ tic completeness, are Covert Drab and 



10 



vn 



Partridge Brown, the former being used 
for the body of the house, and the latter 
for trimmings, thus producing a warm 
richness of tone, combined with quietness 
and elegance of color, which will accord 
with any surroundings. 

ft^* e^^ i^* 

A smart and attractive scheme of color Color 
for a house, or house and stable, is Auto pign 
Tan with Claret Maroon trimmings. 
This is a most striking and tasteful ar- 
rangement, giving a richness and up-to- 
date look to a place, whether in city, town 
or country. Special attention is called 
to this combination for those whose home 
is in the midst of large grounds. 

4^* e^"* «^* 

A summer home, whether cottage, bun- rjolnr 
galo or houseboat, requires those colors pi«|, 
in keeping with the general surroundings, yru 
and in harmony with each other. In 
other words, restfulness of color is more 
to be desired than smartness of style. 
A cottage or bungalo will prove specially 
restful in Wave Green with trimmings 
of Sage Green. With these should go 
a thin coat of Quaker Grey for the 



shingles to heighten the artistic effect, as 
well as to preserve them. In painting 
the houseboat, the combination of the 
two greens mentioned above is very suit- 
able for the house, but as the deck is used 
for a walk, at least two coats of Quaker 
Grey will be required, and three would 
be better. Give the hull of the boat three 
coats of Cavern Green, and if the last 
coat be followed by a couple of coats of 
Spar Varnish, the end of the season will 
show a boat that will winter well. 

^* ^* ft^^ 

Color Still another harmonious combination. 
Plan that blends well with any surroundings, 

IX is Lavender Drab with Leaf Brown or 
Covert Drab trimmings. With either of 
the recommended colors used upon a 
house with much fret work, the effect is 
particularly pleasing, for it brings out the 
fancy work like lace. 

8^* c^* ^^ 

Color For a square house, or one of the Colo- 
Plan nial style, there can be nothing prettier 

X than Quaker Grey with Satin White 
trimmings. This color scheme gives a 
stateliness and grandeur that severe 

12 



styles of architecture demand, while the 
soft blending will never jar the most 
sensitive eyes or most correct taste. 

^^ ^^* ^^ 

Sunset Yellow trimmings on a house of Color 
Pearl Grey is perhaps one of the smart- Plan 
est combinations to be found, the vivid- XI 
ness of the yellow lighting up the house 
color, making it lively and cheerful, as 
well as agreeable; the cool of the Pearl 
Grey being a good foil to the brilliancy 
of the Sunset Yellow. For a house 
among trees, this combination is specially 
good. 

^^ c^* 9^^ 

Zenith Blue, although one of the most Color 
delicate and striking of colors, is scarcely Plan 
appropriate for a city home, but when XII 
toned down with Satin White trimmings, 
and hidden away in the trees, the effect 
is particularly pleasing. This same 
Zenith Blue is always an effective trim- 
ming for a Pearl Grey house. 

f^* ^^r* f^r* 

Cameo Pink with Covert Drab trim- Color 

mings is another of the most modern Plan 

combinations, and it has a very excellent XUI 
quality, that of not being common. 

13 



As stated in the beginning, these sugges- 
tions are but a few of the wonderful 
artistic combinations possible to the house- 
owner who is willing to take advantage 
of our art department's special service. 

All that is necessary to obtain this help 
(and entirely without cost) is to send us 
a written description of your home, or 
better yet, a photograph, if you can do 
so without too much expense or trouble. 





THE ARCHITECTURAL PHASE 

"The architect is he who can build a house, as 
one may say, by squinting at a piece of paper." 

— Dickens. 

HERE was once a German 
philosopher who declared 
that architecture was 
*^frozen music ;^^ and I sup- 
pose his meaning was the 
expression in physical substance of 
symphony in form and harmony in color. 
In a very excellent book upon Westmin- 
ister Abbey, the learned Canon Farrar, 
says: ^'Outward impressions are as 
meaningless without inward suscepti- 
bilities as are colors to the blind/^ 

It is ventured by the writer, however, 
that no reader of this volume is without 
appreciation of these truths and values, 
for otherwise the matter would have 
remained dull and uninteresting, and the 
book unsent for. 

As it is, the American people are enthu- 
siastic students of the beautiful, no less 
than of the practical. 

^'Life without labor is guilt; labor without 
art is brutality.*^ 



The -^"^ i^ there is one above another who 

Archi- niust needs be honest in his own behalf, 

tectural om whose sensibility should be attuned 

Phase to right, that one is he who builds; and 

not alone the architect, but the contractor, 

the material man, and the maker of 

houses. Because his work is for the 

years; for other days than now; for others 

than himself; and because of all labor it 

is the most in evidence— the boldest and 

the biggest. 

See it there where it stands in the very 
midst of the out-of-doors, where every 
eye beholds it, where every man has a 
concern in it, if it be good or bad; a 
common belonging, benefit or detriment; 
a public thing, a great matter! 

First of all we must have honesty of pur- 
pose, high resolve to make the home 
substantial in construction, beautiful in 
finish, comfortable and pleasing to others 
than ourselves, 

Ruskin, who is perhaps above all, the 
ethical prophet of architectural truth, dis- 
courses wonderfully of this: **l would 
have, then, our ordinary dwellings built 
to last, and built to be lovely; as rich and 
full of pleasantness as may be, within and 

16 



without; with such differences as might 
suit and express each man^s character 
and occupation, and partly his history. 
Therefore, "when 'we buildt let us think 
that ive build forel?er, 

*^Let it not be for present delight, nor for 
present use alone; let it be such work as 
our descendants will thank us for, and 
let us think, as we lay stone on stone, 
that a time is to come when those stones 
will be held sacred because our hands 
have touched them, and that men will 
say as they look upon the labor and 
wrought substance of them, *See! this 
our fathers did for us!'*^ 

Of all modern architecture during the past 
five centuries, in whatever country, we 
find no models so suitable to the purposes 
of the American home as those supplied 
by England. Nothing, on the other hand, 
so impossible to our use as those of 
Egyptian or Moresque design. 

No people have so closely studied the 
great facts of home life and home beauty 
with such fidelity and success as have 
the English. The result is a degree of 
excellence in both design and color har- 
mony unequaled and certainly unexcelled 

17 



The 
Archi- 
tectural 
Phase 



The 
Archi- 
tectural 
Phase 



even in the brilliancy of Venice^ the taste 
of Florence, or the variety of the French 
capital. 

Should you fall in love with an enchanted 
ancient style of dwelling that is built of 
stone, you must, on no account, do what 
Theodore Roosevelt tells us in his history 
of Cromwell that the Stuart King did, 
namely, '^flinch/' It was fatal to Charles, 
and it will be fatal to any successful 
house scheme. You must draw the 
stone and carry it up to the very peak. 
If the architect tells you you must have 
bricks to be laid in Flemish bond, as 
would be the case had you lost your 
heart to that other rare old form, do not 
think you may throw in a couple of 
Palladian windows, and use weather- 
boards. It will not do. It would be no 
worse form to order two courses of soup 
at the same dinner. 



It is true that the great Italian architect 
strung these favorite openings along in 
charming sequence in the Basilica at 
Vicenza, but that masterpiece in monu- 
mental design expresses nothing of the 
Anglo-Saxon home feeling. In the lan- 



18 



guage of the stage, **always procure 
what the play calls ior,'* 

Build the house smaller, use brick, and 
no better color treatment than Tile Tan 
for the body decoration trimmed in 
Spaniel Brown and Crow Black sashes. 
Just the thing, you will say, for your 
city house, or your town house in a 
manufacturing district where soot and 
smoke always subdue the more vivid 
artistic combinations. This combination 
is at once rich, handsome and substan- 
tial. There is nothing better where your 
house stands in a crowded thoroughfare 
or a closely built-up city block or down- 
town district. 

If your home is to be of wood — not brick 
and not stone — select some good histor- 
ical model (such as those recommended 
by the architectural department of The 
Poole Paint Association, St. Louis, Mo.). 
Do not fail to use shingles for the entire 
exterior, if your building fund will possi- 
bly allow. Here Roman Red and Cavern 
Green, or Covert Drab and Partridge 
Brown will *Vest the eye and satisfy.^^ 

If a summer home or small cottage, you 
can get all the * Vitch-colonial'^ inspira- 



The 
Archi- 
tectural 
Phase 



The ^ tion needed by obtaining Poolers New 
Archl- England Types — the classics of old 
tectural Salem, Ipswich, Danvers, farm houses 
Phase of the Berkshire Hills, town houses 

of old Connecticut and Massachusetts 

villages, etc. 

Have you built on this wise, then do not 
forget the body color in Wave Green 
with trimmings of Green Sage. There 
is nothing quite so fetching in ordinary 
small-home surroundings. Colonial 
houses, however, are by no means '^all 
a^shingle,^^ like the House of the Burgo- 
master at Maplewood, N. J. 

Many of the best, both architecturally 
and artistically, are plain or beaded 
weatherboard exteriors. The color 
harmony in all these cases may vary as 
widely as you please, but you^ll find 
nothing rarer or prettier than the com- 
binations recommended. 



20 




MORE PRETENTIOUS HOUSES 

UT at Lake Forrest, III, 
there are some splendid 
types of the larger and most 
costly styles of American 
residences. 

Some of these of the early Tudor type — 
strong, simple lines; wide, dignified en- 
trances, etc. They suggest old English 
manor-houses, and this impression is 
further intensified by the mellow tone of 
the coloring — continental buff, brick and 
the trim in satin white, and clinging 
vines. 

In some of these homes the first story is 
of brick, the second of plaster between 
cross-beams of wood, dark-stained with 
Partridge Brown. 

Over some of the doorways Japanese 
ivy, and deep window boxes of flowers 
above. 

In the West, where lies our low, rolling 
country, the more unpretentious your 
colors, the better the effect. 

Nothing conforms so perfectly to the rest- 
ful stretches of green fields as the warm 



More 
Preten- 
tious 
Houses 



Spaniel Brown of the exterior, the re- 
peated lines of the roofs, a great brick 
chimney Roman Red, pleasing the eye, 
and through it all a very promise of cosi- 
ness and comfort within. 

In exposed positions where, as one may 
say: 

^'This is a house by the sea, upon a 
hill'^ — what could you imagine better 
than a sturdy base of lichen-clad bowl- 
ders, the sides shingled or boarded in 
Pearl Gray, with Sage Green trim, 
simple pyramid roof, the lines and angles 
curved and softened like the wings of a 
sea-bird folded above its nest — a veritable 
clustering of harmonies to make the 
house a nature-part of the prominence it 
rests upon. 




HOME DECORATION 
APPLIED IN PRACTICE 

LONG through the pages 
preceding we have gone over 
the ground preparatory to 
the real actual work itself 
and the choice of materials. 
We have scanned the various color com- 
binations, ideas and schemes, the art side 
of the question as well as the archi- 
tectural phrases of the problem. 

This brings us to the carrying out of the 
color treatment and its execution in 
actual practice. 

Now, suppose you have chosen your art 
combination, made up your mind to paint 
your house according to '^Color Plan VI,'' 
Covert Drab and Partridge Brown trim- 
mings; what about the paint? ^^ Where 
shall I get the colors?" 'What do they 
cost?'' ''How do I know I am getting 
the best?" 

It was not originally our intention to 
raise this question, but so much mislead- 
ing information has been given out, and 
there is so much misunderstanding about 

23 



Home it, that a little wholesome daylight data 

Decora- will be quite as welcome help to the 

tion house-owner on this question as the 

applied other parts of our little book. 

tice When you go to buy paint, take the ad- 

vice of the oldest heads in architecture 
and in art — and go to a good paint 
dealer. 

There isn^t any such thing as safe or 
guaranteed ready-mixed paint. Paint, 
mixed and canned, lives as long as the 
oil lives and no longer. The only thing 
it outlives is the guarantee, which usually 
expires as the can is opened. The very 
best linseed oil made dies in the can. 
For when you stop to think of it, 
it is true that this is unfortunate, but 
canned paint is always either dead paint 
or dying paint, for the oil in it is its very 
life and soul, and the chemical action or 
^'working*^ which goes on inside the can 
eats the vitality out of the oil and leaves 
the paint exhausted, dead and lifeless. 
And the reason is this: The oil being a 
vegetable product and the lead a mineral, 
they fight each other till the life of the 
oil is consumed. 



24 



Ready-mixed paint in the can is ready- Home 
mixed paint in the coffin* And yet, you Decora- 
may chance to be lucky enough, if you tion 
watch the goods coming into a dealer^s applied 
store, or happen to see them on first inPrac- 
arrival, to get a can fairly fresh. Still tice 
you^re taking the long end of the risk '\ 

even then, for the well-known principle 
on which the ready-mixed paint manu- 
facturers make their enormous profits is 
in stocking up the dealer and loading 
down his shelves with dying stock. 

Just notice, next time you^re in the store, 
how often youVe seen those same old 
cans before. And then think how the 
paint inside is dying in them, slowly 
dying day by day — all the while waiting 
for somebody to come along and buy 
and let in a little long lost air and 
light. 

Ready-mixed paint, if fresh, and honestly 
made of lead, zinc and good linseed oil, 
good dryer and good color pigment, is 
all right. 

But you never know. 

You can^t tell. There isn*t any way to 
be sure about it. 



25 



Home 
Decora- 
tion 
applied 
in Prac- 
tice 



If the meat packers succeed as they have 
in refusing to date their cans, how can 
we expect the money-making maker of 
ready-mixed paint to sacrifice his im- 
mense profits just for you and me. He 
won^t do it. He doesn^t do it. And 
he^II never do it till the law forces him, 
and that, unfortunately, looks as if it 
were a long way off. 

From the house-owner*s point of view 
there is another very suspicious feature 
about ready-mixed paint, and that is the 
price. 

The fact of the matter is that when you 
buy ready-mixed paint, you^re not buy- 
ing paint at all. YouVe asked to pay 
the full, regular paint price, while half 
the can is really nothing but lifeless lin- 
seed oil — which never costs more than 
forty to sixty cents a gallon. 

There*s the cheat of the ready-mixed paint 
business; you see the profit for those who 
get you to buy it. YouVe paying a 
paint price for poor oil. You are forced 
by the ready-mixed paint maker to pay 
him a fancy price for oil that you can buy 
yourself as cheap as he can. 



26 



As a matter of fact, the truth of this 
whole general question of ready-mixed 
paint richly deserves exposure. It is 
time it was taken up by the press and 
published to the public for what it is 
worth, in the same way as canned meats 
and impure foods. 

The consumer, in short, is never pro- 
tected by the can trade in ready-mixed 
paints. The result is that your house 
looks well enough for a year or two, 
then the dead oil brings out the chalking, 
scaling and powdered condition which 
proves you have been deceived. 

Bad as this showing is, it is true in hun- 
dreds and hundreds of disappointing, ex- 
asperating cases reported almost daily. 

Nor are these all of the abuses in the 
paint industry. There are many others, 
and you, the house-owner, have a right 
to know the details; in fact you have a 
right to know all the secrets and mysteries 
of the work. That is why we are pub- 
lishing them here and now, in this little 
book. 

Some expert dealers arc enthusiastic for 
lead — nothing for them but lead. Yet 

[V 



Home 
Decora- 
tion 
applied 
in Prac- 
tice 



Home 
Decora- 
tion 
applied 
in Prac- 
tice 



they admit that zinc has its value — adds 
to the brilliancy and luster and makes 
paint cover and spread better under the 
brush. 

Still you^II find many an honest dealer 
who fights hard for pure lead and will 
tell you that that is the only way. 

But, is it? 

Pure white lead is absolutely poisonous 
in the first place. 

It is expressly prohibited by the French 
Government and placarded like small- 
pox wherever used in Germany. And it 
does not make the best paint, though you 
pay the most for it. 

Used alone with linseed oil, color pig- 
ment, and mixed by hand, it does make 
good paint if the oil is pure, if the pig- 
ments are good, and if the mixing is 
long and thoroughly done, and if it is 
mixed and left over night to properly 
ripen, which should be done, but never 
is done, 

There^s another misleading thing about 
lead — a bad thing — and a point you can 
prove in almost any neighborhood by in- 
vestigating a little for yourself. 

28 



Notice how lead, after it^s been on awhile, 
crumbles and dries out so that if you 
happen to rub your coat sleeve against 
it, it comes off like so much flour. 

Hand mixing and hand manipulation is 
never so evenly executed as machine 
work; the hand and arm is bound to tire 
and falter; the machine never does. It 
mixes uniformly, mechanically and per- 
fectly. 

Lead paint, hand-mixed, does not solve 
the paint problem. 

Zinc paint, ready-mixed, is never safe to 
buy. 

Zinc paint, hand-mixed, is as doubtful 
as lead. 

Perhaps the worst paint sold in this 
country is what is known as catalogue 
paint; or cheap, common paint, ready 
mixed, canned and put up in vast quan- 
tities and stored to be sold as ordered. 

The marvel is that the public can be 
induced to buy this kind of mail order 
paint. Paint is not a mail order propo- 
sition, and mail order houses have never 
sold paint successfully and never can, in 
the judgment of the ablest men in the 
business, and the reason is that in order 



Home 
Decora- 
tion 
applied 
in Prac- 
tice 



Home 
Decora- 
tion 
applied 
in Prac- 
tice 



to reduce the price they must necessarily 
reduce the quality, and instead of getting 
pure linseed oil you get cheap rosin oil, 
and instead of lead you get adulterants 
made of marble dust, white earth, etc., 
which gives the substance weight, but it 
is absolutely valueless as paint. 

We think it only fair to the reader to 
sound a note of warning on this subject, 
because the confidence of the people in 
so-called mail order houses has been well 
bestowed; but the mail order houses are 
not paint manufacturers, and they can^t 
make and sell paint and sell it fresh by 
the method they have adopted. The 
result is that thousands of disappointed 
customers and shabby looking houses 
bear witness to the fact that *^catalogue 
paint'^ has proven a most disastrous 
failure in the history of the paint business. 

You can figure this out for yourself. 

If you consider how much good, pure 
linseed oil costs, and how much white 
lead costs, and how much zinc costs, 
and how much color pigments cost, and 
then compare the prices. 

And no mail order house is able to buy 
these materials any cheaper than the 

30 



public generally, for the reason that they 
are sold on the open market and quoted 
publicly every day on the exchanges. 
In other words, nobody has an inside 
track on prices in paint. Catalogue paint 
is fraud paint, and we deplore the fact 
because catalogue companies and mail 
order houses have kept their skirts pretty 
clean of scandal, but some one or two of 
them seem to have yielded to temptation 
at last, but we prophesy that public repu- 
diation will not be long delayed. You 
can^t fool the people twice on poor paint. 

What the public wants is better paint, 
not worse paint, and certainly not decep- 
tive, fraud paint which is not paint, but 
a base adulteration which will not wear, 
which does not keep^ its quality and 
appearance, and which ■ proves an| in- 
variable disappointment to the buyer. 
Then there is another widely heralded 
method of marketing paints, called by 
various names, and which has proven 
after all to amount to nothing else than 
the assurance of fresh mixing for each 
order, which is then offered to you and 
the public direct from the manufacturer. 
The plan, like the paint, when tried out, 
is questionable. 



Home 
Decora- 
tion 
applied 
in Prac- 
tice 



Home Mixing single orders is out of the question 
Decora- with any large, responsible manufacturer 
tion receiving hundreds and thousands of 

applied orders per day. There is nothing in 
in Prac- such claiming. In other words, such paint 
tice is put up like ready-mixed paint, and by 

no means worth anything like the price 
asked for it, which price is based on the 
mythical mixing for you and me in per- 
son, which does not take place. 

Biscuits are not boxed for us, any of 
us, individually; nor butter wrapped fresh 
for your table, or mine either — yet it 
would be fine, indeed, if it were only true. 

There is no greater thing in the world 
than strong personal character and good 
personal reputation, but personality and 
paint don^t really mix in what you would 
call a profitable way. 

When you buy a roast of beef you buy 
it for what it is; you buy it on account 
of itself and its own quality, and you 
don*t pay much attention to the personal- 
ity of the butcher or his moral make-up. 

This is a good deal true in about the 
same way with paint. 

In other words, personality is hardly an 
•^ issue, nor is it an ingredient in paint. 



32 



What we all want to know about paint 
is what it is, what it is made of, how 
long it wears, and whether it is worth 
the money, and questions like that. 
It doesn^t make so much difference who 
makes it, so long as it^s good, but there 
is a way to judge paint, and only one safe 
way, and that is to judge it the way the 
expert dealer judges it — by the pigment* 
For paint is pigment, oil is oil. 
Judge it not by lead, nor 2inc, nor maga- 
zine announcements, nor by the can, nor 
by the guarantee, nor by any one test of 
all of them. 

Yeast doesn^t make bread. 
Nor does flour. 
Nor water. 
Nor salt. 

Nor any two of them. 
Each has its value, its place, and part in 
the combination which produces the 
general result. 

It^s the same with paint; even more em- 
phatically than with bread. 
Buy the pigment yourself irom your own 
dealer, if you can get the best ; buy your 
oil fresh from him; he has it ( if he hasn^t 
he wouIdn^t be in the business this long) . 



Home 
Decora- 
tion 
applied 
in Prac- 
tice 




WHAT IS MEANT BY PIGMENTS 

lOOLE Paint Pigments 
embody what is regarded 
by paint experts as the only 
certain and proved paint 
quality on the open market. 
They are made from the standard paint 
materials; from the raw materials that 
years of experience has proved make the 
best paint for buildings. 

Poole Paint Pigments are ground to the ex- 
treme degree of fineness in most modern 
and improved mills with pure matured 
linseed oil and the finest English drier. 

Every step in the manufacture is watched 
by experts^ and not one single drop of 
Poole Paint Pigment leaves the factory 
until practical and chemical tests prove 
it up to the high standard we uphold. 
It is only fair to say, however, that to 
both dealer and consumer it is after all 
the Poole method of marketing and sell- 
ing which really insures the quality and 
gives the rank and file of paint buyers 
the only adequate protection anywhere 
apparent in the trade. 

Poole Paint Pigments come in soft 
paste-like concentrated colors, ground in 

34 



oil but not canned in oil. These colors 
are shown on a colored insert mailed 
separately, and it will be noted with spe- 
cial interest that these tints are the only- 
shades considered by any of the authori- 
ties who have thus far written on the 
subject of color combinations and on the 
architectural bearing of house decoration. 

We doubt if we could point to any more 
suggestive or conclusive reference than 
this, as proving in the most authoritative 
manner the superior value and quality of 
Poole Paint Pigments. 

A bit back we spoke of the methods of 
selling. 

There is a great big fact in that for both 
dealer and house-owner; both have an 
interest in knowing what it is. 

In the first place our plan is based on 
the certified proved quality of Poole 
Paint Pigments. 

The paint made from these pigments 
wears, and wears well, on an average 
nine years. The Association guarantees 
it absolutely for eight years — one year 



What is 
meant 
by Pig- 
ments. 



35 



ments 



What is less than the proof period experience has 
meant demonstrated, 

EJL«+e ^^ know this paint; we know what it 
is, what it does, how it wears, holds its 
luster, brilliancy and integrity — and we 
sell it to you on just that basis and no 
other. 

We do not tell you it is canned fresh for 
you. It isn^t. There isn^t any reason 
why it should be. You buy it in con- 
centrated pigment form, ready to be 
mixed fresh with good, pure linseed oil. 

And a very important point right here is 
that it is easy to mix because you pour in 
the oil fresh, and right then is the natural, 
proper time for the mixing; a great deal 
easier, in fact, than to stir up the hardened 
settlings in the bottom of the ready- 
mixed paint can. 

Poole Paint Pigments keep their qual- 
ity no matter how long your dealer has 
carried them. They are not in oil, there- 
fore they keep, and the oil is fresh 
because it has not been mixed. 

Your dealer may have Poole Pigments 
in stock one year, two years or even 
longer; it's just as good and fresh and 

36 



ready when it reaches you as it was 
the day we shipped it. 

That's the chemical and physical differ- 
ence between Poole Paint Pigments 
and canned ready-mixed paints, lead and 
oil, and zinc paints, canned and stale. 
Make sure that all paint should be fresh 
mixed when it is put on; then, and then 
only, do you get the full life of pigment 
and the full life of the oil. 

You can't find a pound of Poole Paint 
Pigments that isn't as fit as a fiddle. It 
can't be any other way. It can't be 
otherwise than perfect and the reason is 
that here, at last, you're buying the actual 
base of all paint — paint pigment — not 
paint that is dead or dying in the can, 
nor are you paying paint prices for 
worn-out linseed oil. 

So much for the quality side of the equa- 
tion. And when you figure it all out its 
just this same bed-rock point of quality 
which spells the true character of paint — 
and everything else. 

Our selling plan does not seek or result 
in any differences between you (the con- 
sumer) and you (the dealer). 



What is 
meant 
by Pig- 
ments 



37 



What is 
meant 
by Pig. 
ments 



We look at it this way: Here we are 
making and selling the best paint pig- 
ment in the world. We are dealers in 
paint then, of course. Now, we can do 
either of three things. We can ignore 
the user of paint, cheapen our product 
by adulteration and market it through 
the dealer exclusively, regardless of the 
public. 

That^s one way. 

Lots of manufacturers travel that road 
and lots of them have reached the end 
of it. 

Then, we could do another thing: We 
could ignore the dealer; cheapen our prod- 
uct by adulteration, spend the difference 
in a wide-open expensive campaign of 
advertising, charge you (the paint user) 
a double price (as it is done by one or 
two) and still make money. 

But is that all weM make? 

No; it is not. WeM make enemies either 
way eventually — either the people or the 
paint trade. 

We want the friendship and the confi- 
dence and the business of both. 



38 



Not the patronage of one at the sacrifice What is 
of the other. meant 

Therefore^ we take the third road to ^Y * ^o" 
results. inents 

It may be a little narrow in places, but 
its straighter — and we know where it 
leads to. 

Let us understand this another way: 
We have offered you this little volume 
devoted to the fair and honest discussion 
of a great subject. 

You, the consumer, in accepting our 
offer, have given us in your turn the best 
and fairest hearing anyone could ask. 

This book tells the story of home deco- 
ration and home improvement and gives 
you facts which are facts all the way 
through. Some of them may hurt a 
little; maybe they pinch a trifle here and 
there — dealer or home-owner — maybe 
both, sometimes. 

But every word we publish is true. And 
that^s the gist of the whole thing. 

We are showing you bluntly, and maybe 
even awkwardly, just why you want 
Poole Paint Pigments and not doubtful 
products. 

39 



What is Have we not earned the right to believe 
meant that when you buy paint again^ you^II 
by Pig- buy it right? 

itients 

And if so^ why not walk over to that old 

dealer — neighbor of yours, and fellow- 
townsman — and tell him what you have 
made up your mind to use? 

He*ll be only too glad to make the sale. 
If he isn^t, we'll see that you get the 
paint, just the same. 

He makes a decent, honest profit, and you 
get the best paint ever produced, at 25 to 
50 per cent cheaper than other paint; and 
by so doing you save 25 to 50 per cent 
on painting your property. 

We believe that when we do this we 
accomplish three results: Not only a 
close profit to ourselves, but a fair, reason- 
able profit to the dealer, and at the same 
time we give you (the consumer) all and 
more than you ever bought before for 
your paint money. 

This entire plan of making and market- 
ing Poole Paint Pigments has been tried 
and tested in years and years of expe- 
rience, and we are absolutely positive that 
we are right and that the public and the 



trade is with us in the support of our 
method. 

We have always calculated that it was 
far better for us to please both the trade 
and the public, even if we only made a 
quarter profit for ourselves, than it would 
have been had we tried to make four 
times as much money for two or three 
years and then find that we had sunk out 
of sight through popular disfavor. 

Poole Paint Pigments come in what we 
list as 25-lb. gallon cans and 12/2 -lb. 
half gallon cans, but the gallon cans con- 
taining Poole Paint Pigments are a little 
larger than United States standard gallon 
measure. We have made it our rule to 
give a substantial extra quantity over and 
above the regular average amount. This 
is also true of the l2'2-lb. half gallon 
cans. You get more paint pigment and 
the can is larger, weighs more and is 
greater in dimension. 

The result of this is that you are always 
sure of absolutely good measure. 

In other words, the difference in size 
between Poole's gallon and the gallon 
measure of other manufacturers is about 



What is 
meant 
by P«- 
ments 



What is 
meant 
by Pig- 
ments 



like the difference between the baker^s 
dozen and the figure 12, 

Now, note as a buyer, whether you are 
dealer or consumer, that these pigments 
are the concentrated, condensed, basic 
essence of paint. They are what give 
character, color and solidity to the paint 
when mixed with oil; and every gallon 
of pigment you buy will take two 
gallons of oil. 

Not one gallon, but two gallons. 

Two full gallons of linseed oil to each 
gallon of Poole Paint Pigments. The 
result is that you get three full gallons 
of perfect paint ready for the brush. 

And when you compare Poole prices with 
the prices you are asked to pay for ready 
mixed paint which retails from $1.50 to 
$1.75 per gallon, you find that by our 
plan you get 25 to 50 per cent more paint 
value. Why? Because in Poole Paint 
Pigments, it^s all paint — every bit of it — 
for you buy your oil separately, and get 
it fresh from your own dealer at the 
regular market price. 



42 



You get the best paint possible to be 
made — the best paint that is made^ the 
best paint made anywhere. 

In other words, Poole Paint Pigments, 
mixed with pure linseed oil, yield you 
the best paint ever sold on the paint 
market. 

It^s the selling plan that does it. 

Don^t buy cheap paint. 

Cheap paint is cheat paint. 

And it doesn^t make any difference how 
they ask you to buy it, whether by mail 
order or from a dealer. 

It^s what you don't get that makes it 
deceitful, not the method of delivery. 



What is 
meant 
by Pig- 
ments 



43 




IN CONCLUSION 

I HE Poole Paint Association 
and its officers beg to express 
the earnest trust and con- 
fidence that the public gen- 
erally will avail itself of the 
new free service of our Art Department 
and of the Department in Architecture 
as well. 

A complete correspondence bureau has 
already been established, and the letters, 
questions and queries of our house- 
owner friends, and dealers also, will 
receive at once prompt attention, and 
without cost, all that our new facilities 
enable us to contribute to up-building 
and beautifying the American home. 







237 90 




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BINDERY INC. |§| 

1^ MAY 90 

N. MANCHESTER, 
INDIANA 46962 






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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



013 962 766 



